Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The Department of Anthropology, Hunter College, cordially invites you to hear Professor Philippe Bourgois, who will talk about his 2009 book, Righteous Dopefiend.

Monday, December 6th, at 5:30PM
President’s Conference Room,
17th floor,
Hunter College East Building

Co-authored and with photographs by Jeff Schonberg and published by the University of California Press (Public Anthropology Series), Righteous Dopefiend is a powerful study that immerses the reader in the world of homelessness and drug addiction in the contemporary United States.

For over a decade Philippe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg followed a social network of two dozen heroin injectors and crack smokers on the streets of San Francisco, accompanying them as they scrambled to generate income through burglary, panhandling, recycling, and day labor.

Righteous Dopefiend interweaves stunning black-and-white photographs with vivid dialogue, detailed field notes, and critical theoretical analysis. Its gripping narrative develops a cast of characters around the themes of violence, race relations, sexuality, family trauma, embodied suffering, social inequality, and power relations.

The result is a dispassionate chronicle of survival, loss, caring, and hope rooted in the addicts' determination to hang on for one more day and one more "fix" through a "moral economy of sharing" that precariously balances mutual solidarity and interpersonal betrayal.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Trinidad and Tobago has had book fairs and literary events over the years but
these are few in comparison to the number of books published by Caribbean
authors all over the world. Nor does the Caribbean region have a major award for
literature, when it has produced some literary greats, including three Nobel
Laureates.

That is all set to change next April when a new annual prize for Caribbean
literature is launched. The OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, with a
$10,000 USD cheque attached, courtesy the One Caribbean Media group, will be
awarded to the best book published in 2010. The book will be chosen from the
winner in each of three categories - fiction, literary non-fiction and poetry.

Published writers who are Caribbean by birth or citizenship living and working
anywhere in the world will be eligible for the Prize, which is the first
indigenous Caribbean prize for Literature. The ten international judges, all
Caribbean in origin, will produce a short list by 28th March 2011 and the winner
will be announced on 30th April 2011.

The new literary award will be one of the highlights of an annual literary
festival, the Bocas Lit Fest, also being launched in March and sponsored by
Republic Bank, OCM, Flow, KFC, British Gas, and still un-announced other
sponsors. Weekend events are planned for the month of April, culminating in a
four-day event that the organisers expect to take place at NAPA, the National
Academy of the Performing Arts, in Port of Spain, between 28 April and 1 May.
The last weekend of April has been the date designated for the event every year.

Founder of the annual Prize and of the Bocas Lit Fest, Marina Salandy-Brown,
explained, "It will bring together writers of all sorts, local, regional and
international, wannabe and secret writers, readers, booksellers, publishers,
agents and everyone in the business of writing and those taking pleasure from
it. There will be readings, performances, workshops, panel discussions, children
storytelling, book singings, book launches, drama and music, the chance to get
feedback on your work in progress and to buy the newest titles.

And although we
are calling it a literary festival, because so much of our literary tradition is
derived from our oral and folklore tradition we are thinking of it more as a
festival of words. That's one reason why we have called it the Bocas Lit Fest –
to do with the mouth. We will be catering too for those interested in creating
lyrics and storytelling."

The announcement of the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature and the
Bocas Lit Fest was made at the International Convention of Caribbean Literature
held in Port of Spain in November. All the information for entry is at:
www.bocaslitfest.com

Confessions of a Book Fiend

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Many travelers will have their first taste of the TSA's new stricter security measures this week as the busy holiday travel season begins. With some passengers-rights groups urging people to opt out of security scanners on the day before Thanksgiving for more time-consuming pat-down screenings, the PBS NewsHour wants to know about your airport security experience.

Starting on Wednesday, tweet @NewsHour the time it took you to get through security -- from the time you got in line until the time you put your shoes back on -- and we might include your tweets in a future blog post and round-up of how the new security measures and some passengers' resistance are playing out.

Here's how to participate via Twitter:
Include the hashtag #TSATime in your tweet.

Be as specific as possible (Example: @NewsHour It took me 52 min. at #DCA at 9 am because I opted out of full-body scanner for #patdown. #TSATime)
Include the three-letter code for the airport where you were screened (Example: #LAX, #CMH, #MIA).

And don't hesitate to provide more details or anecdotes about your experience as space permits. Quotes and observations are welcome. But make sure to keep the language clean and follow the rules at your airport.

Brilliant color, bold
flavors, and an innovative mix of traditional and modern cuisines are the
hallmarks of Daisy’s cooking. Can’t-fail dishes—like Coconut and Winter Squash
Soup—that Daisy learned to cook alongside her mother and grandmother in Puerto
Rico mingle with recipes she’s used to entertain her family and friends through
the years."

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Monday, November 22, 2010

Most of us are guilty of it, we celebrate the holidays, pig out, without ever really thinking about what we are really celebrating.

When it comes to celebrations that are deeply entrenched in Puritanical ideology and colonialism, the fallacy and internalization of is especially thought-provoking for colonized peoples.

I wanted to bring your attention to:

After reading this interesting perspective on the history of our all-American holiday, I was only left with the thought that maybe "Thanksgiving" should be called "Slaughter the Natives and their Fowl" day. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Barnes & Noble has opened a Spanish-language digital bookstore, Nookbooks en español. It is selling Spanish-language bestsellers, new releases, classics, works in translation, and other books. There are also free works available, and all can be read on Nook devices.

B&N is working with international and U.S. publishers to expand its catalog of Spanish-language books. It currently includes more than a third of the top-selling trade Spanish-language titles in the U.S.
Patricia Arancibia, international content manager, digital products at B&N, said,

“For the first time ever, Nookbooks en español enables Spanish speakers in the U.S., and those interested in learning and reading in Spanish, to get Spanish-language new releases, bestsellers, and classics in a digital format.” Theresa Horner, v-p of content, digital products, said the company’s goal is to make the largest and most diverse selection of digital content “convenient and accessible for everyone.”

"Out My Window – a new interactive documentary, a film unlike any you have seen
before! Created with 360º video and high end
web technology, Out My Window
brings you to 13 different locations across the globe, moving from
Chicago to São Paulo, to Bangalore and Johannesburg. And the story
doesn’t unfold linearly. You choose where and when you want the stories
(49 in total) to begin and end. Watch the trailer, or just jump into the interactive documentary and see for yourself."

This year I told my family that I am cutting back. No one is getting lavish gifts. My mom responded by telling me she only wanted one thing - Ricky Martin's memoir:
Me by Ricky
Martin.

I think that's really cute! Here's my mom, who's almost 70 years old, and what she wants for the holidays is the memoir of a hot teeny bop sensation (okay, he's all grown up now and a humanitarian - but still - just go with me here). Adorable! I think Santa might approve this one. Shake that bon-bon, with your bad self, Mami!

Side note: Yes, I confess, I was a huge Menudo fan back in the early '80s. In fact, I had a cat, a female, named Ricky, but she was named Ricky after the original Ricky in the group, Ricky Meléndez, not Ricky Martin, who was my crush. I also named her Ricky by mistake because at first, I thought she was a boy. Poor Ricky!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

I don't know if I will be going to the theater to see this - it seems like a good movie to watch at home on a chilly night but I remember reading this as senior in college during a phase where I was quite taken by Hemingway and Faulkner and I fear this movie won't do the writing justice.

For those of you who haven't read Garden of Eden by Ernest Hemingway, which was published posthumously in 1986, it's the story about an American husband and wife abroad on holiday on the French Riviera and their tryst with a young woman they both fall in love with - mind you, this is a novel he began writing in 1946.
It's incredibly sexy..."you aren't very to corrupt and you're an awful lot of fun to corrupt" (love that line!) and explores the dynamic between gender roles, androgyny, and male/female relationships.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Freighted with meaning, “el barrio” is both place and metaphor for Latino populations in the United States. Though it has symbolized both marginalization and robust and empowered communities, the construct of el barrio has often reproduced static understandings of Latino life; they fail to account for recent demographic shifts in urban centers such as New York, Chicago, Miami, and Los Angeles, and in areas outside of these historic communities.

Beyond El Barrio features new scholarship that critically interrogates how Latinos are portrayed in media, public policy and popular culture, as well as the material conditions in which different Latina/o groups build meaningful communities both within and across national affiliations. Drawing from history, media studies, cultural studies, and anthropology, the contributors illustrate how despite the hypervisibility of Latinos and Latin American immigrants in recent political debates and popular culture, the daily lives of America's new “majority minority” remain largely invisible and mischaracterized.

Taken together, these essays provide analyses that not only defy stubborn stereotypes, but also present novel narratives of Latina/o communities that do not fit within recognizable categories. In this way, this book helps us to move “beyond el barrio”: beyond stereotype and stigmatizing tropes, as well as nostalgic and uncritical portraits of complex and heterogeneous range of Latina/o lives.

Monday, November 08, 2010

El Museo del Barrio and Comité Noviembre have partnered up to host the 16th
Annual Day of Community Service & Social Responsibility, taking place on
Sunday, November 21, 2010. On this day, we will distribute food care packages to
75 pre-selected underserved families from El Barrio at El Museo's El Taller in anticipation of the Thanksgiving holiday.

We are currently collecting food donations for qualifying families, and hope
you'll help us support this wonderful cause by donating canned foods or other
non-perishable items.

Donations can be dropped off at El Museo's office before
Friday, November 19, located on the 3rd floor of 1230 5th Avenue at 104th
Street. Hours are Monday-Friday, 10:00am-5:00pm.

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Puerto Ricans ages 16 to 24 have the lowest rates of school enrollment and employment, and the highest rates of poverty among Latino New Yorkers. Puerto Rican men are more than twice as likely as their Mexican peers to be out of school and out of the labor force. Puerto Rican women are more likely to be out of school and unemployed than Dominican or Mexican women.
The findings, culled from the Census Bureau’s annual surveys from 2006 to 2008, show that Puerto Rican youth are the most disadvantaged of all comparable groups, including young black men, in New York, the report said.

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

"Yo no vengo a decir un discurso," (I Didn't Come to Give a Speech) is a
compilation of 22 speeches Garcia has given throughout his life - is available in Spain and Latin America.
His latest novel "En agosto nos vemos," whose title in English means "We'll Meet in August," is being completed now and awaits a publishing date.

Monday, November 01, 2010

Don't miss WNYC's next Black & Latino Literary Salon, a
collaboration with The Studio Museum! The Afro-Latin@ Reader sheds light
on a large, vibrant, yet oddly invisible community in the United
States: people of African descent from Latin America and the Caribbean.

Join editors Juan Flores and Miriam Jiménez Román for a
conversation-in-the-round about Afro-Latino identity of Black Latinos in
the United States.

Youarewhatyouread.com, was launched last week by Scholastic, and has a niche angle in terms of book communities. Here the focus is on what 5 books most influenced members and you can check out notable profiles like those of Bill Gates to Whoopi Goldberg.

The site is very kid friendly and users can log in without creating an account, they can log in with their facebook/Google... accounts or their Scholastic account. There doesn't seem to be any real community building aspect yet, you can't follow/friend other users or reach out to them but you can observe what books most influenced them or which ones they have in common.This might change soon since there is a feature to 'add a bookmate' but it wasn't clear to me how to do this.

Another [cool] feature, called Pass It On, lets users suggest books to others, and the map feature shows the places people are who have put a particular book on their profile. There is not a "buy" button on any book page. The site has a separate community for young readers with kid-friendly activities and information about books. In the future, Scholastic will update the site with new features, including Book Buzz, a live feed of comments, news, and reviews.

Who is Literanista?

Valerie M. Russo

New York, NY, United States

A native New Yorker born to Puerto Rican & Sicilian parents in Spanish Harlem's El Barrio, Literanista is a Social Media Strategist, a published poet/writer, has worked at Hachette Book Group, Aol, Thomson Reuters and scouts the web for multicultural literary news, tech trends, innovation, working on her debut novel & about a million other things.

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Disclosure

* All content on Literanista is strictly based on my sole personal opinion & beliefs & not those of my employer. I sometimes receive advance release copies of books, media, and products for promotion purposes.